The Chrome 440 GTX is the latest card from S3 Graphics. It features all the main bullet points like DirectX 10.1, PCI-Express 2.0, native HDMI with integrated audio, small form factor and low heat output. But is this enough to compete with the offerings from ATI and NVIDIA?
Palit is one of the first AMD board partners to release a custom Radeon HD 4870 version. Their new HD 4870 Sonic Dual Edition comes with a completely revamped cooling assembly that features two fans to keep the card cool. Also included is a DisplayPort connector and a Turbo switch which lets you select the operating frequencies of the card. The mandatory "overclocked out of the box" is included as well.
Powercolor's latest HD 4850 PCS graphics card is based on the AMD HD 4850 reference design but comes with an improved cooler and slightly increased core clocks. While the overclock makes only a small performance difference, the cooler substantially improves the product. Even under load the PCS 4850 is barely audible which makes it the quietest graphics card ever tested - of all performance classes.
Today AMD released their new HD 4870 X2 graphics cards. They are based on two RV770 GPUs on one PCB. With a total of 1600 shaders and 2 GB GDDR5 memory the card has excellent chances to achieve the goal "fastest graphics card in the world".
Sapphire's new HD 4850 Toxic graphics card comes with a preinstalled Zalman VF-900 GPU cooler that greatly reduces the operating temperature of the card. Also the operating frequencies have been bumped quite a bit, with some additional overclocking potential left in the card.
NVIDIA's new GeForce 9800 GTX+ comes with a 55 nm CPU that runs at higher clock speeds, yet consumes less power than the original 65 nm chip. Zotac's Amp! Edition further increases the operating frequencies. Even though the higher clocks make the card faster than the ATI HD 4850, the difference is very small and probably not noticable while gaming.
NVIDIA recently launched the GeForce 9500 GT. This low-end card in the GeForce 9 Series is designed to offer acceptable gaming performance for the small wallet. Galaxy has created an overclocked edition which runs at higher clocks and comes with a quiet heatpipe cooling solution. In our testing we saw amazing overclocking potential of over 35% compared to the reference design clocks.
NVIDIA's new GeForce 9800 GT Series is not really new. The performance, specification and GPU are identical to that of the GeForce 8800 GT. Only a few minor features like Purevideo HD and Hybrid Power are present. At least Zotac showed a bit of creativity and added a bright orange PCB and higher clocks out of the box.
At this time NVIDIA's new GTX 260 graphics cards are positioned to be quite a bit more expensive than ATI's similar performing HD 4870. However, NVIDIA includes support for CUDA and PhysX. We also saw amazing overclocking potential on our GTX 260 card, even surpassing the $200 more expensive GTX 280.
AMD's new Radeon HD 4870 is the first graphics card to feature GDDR5 memory. GDDR5 offers twice the memory bandwidth over previous GDDR generations which helps the HD 4870 gain a nice performance advantage over the HD 4850.
After AMD's successful launch of the HD 4850 Series, NVIDIA decided to drop the price point of the GeForce 9800 GTX to only $199. At this price the card becomes a very affordable product that offers all the performance you need to play the latest games. An additional plus is the support for PhysX via NVIDIA's CUDA implementation.
AMD has moved the launch date of the HD 4850 forward, launching it today. The cards are positioned in the $200 range and offer several new features and performance improvements. According to our benchmark results AMD has found a winner with this card that offers excellent price/performance and energy efficiency.
After some confusion, AMD has lifted the NDA for their brand-new Radeon HD 4850 Series today. The RV770 on these boards comes with 800 shaders and boasts 956 million transistors. Together with a new AA architecture the card takes the $200 segment in a storm offering leading performance/dollar and performance/watt.
Today NVIDIA launches their new GTX 280 graphics cards. Zotac as one of NVIDIA's premier partners has engineered a factory overclocked version of the GTX 280 which offers additional performance. Overall the Zotac GTX 280 Amp Edition is the fastest graphics card on the planet today, but also the most expensive.
NVIDIA's new GTX 280 graphics cards have just been released. Point of View's GeForce GTX 280 is an implementation of the NVIDIA reference design. The GTX 280 offers amazing performance improvements and can even beat the GeForce 9800 GX2. But performance comes at a cost, at $649 you need a fat wallet to be able to afford this card.
Sapphire HD 3870 X2 Atomic Edition comes with pre-filled, pre-sealed and maintenance free watercooling. This allows Sapphire to ship the card with higher clocks, making the card the fastest HD 3870 X2 on the market today. As you would expect from such a premium product the presentation is outstanding, and so is the price.
Palit's GeForce 9800 GTX follows the specifications of the NVIDIA reference design to the letter. Even then it is one of the fastest cards out there that you can buy, constantly delivering excellent FPS in games. Our sample allowed up to 16% additional overclocking on the GPU for a final clock speed of 784 MHz.
Diamond's latest HD 3650 card features a huge video memory of 1 GB, but uses only slow DDR2. For media PC systems an extra HDMI output has been added which natively supports HDCP and audio. We run this card through our benchmarks and check whether the extra memory can make a performance difference.
Today NVIDIA launches their new GeForce 9800 GTX cards. Like many products in the GeForce 8 Series they are based on the G92 graphics processor. This is also the reason why there are no real technological innovations on this $299 card.
EVGA's e-GeForce 9600 GT SSC comes at increased clocks compared to the NVIDIA reference design. Also the cooler has been adjusted slightly to match the company's color theme and design. With a price premium of just $10 over the reference card it can can deliver in both performance per Dollar and performance per Watt.
The HIS Radeon HD 3870 IceQ3 uses the proven HIS IceQ3 cooling solution. It also comes with higher clocks out of the box which are among the highest we have seen so far from all manufacturers. The recent price drops from AMD make this card a solid choice for the sub-$200 segment.
Today NVIDIA launches their GeForce 9800 GX2 dual GPU card. It comes with two G92 GPUs and uses a new cooling design where a single cooler sits in the middle and cools both GPUs. We have the card from Zotac on our testbench today which follows the reference design specification. Unlike many other publications all our testing was conducted in Windows XP because we think that's what the majority of users still plays on.
Sapphire's new HD 3870 Toxic is built on the same Vapor-X cooling technology that the HD 3870 Atomic uses. This means that the card comes with a single slot cooling solution making it a premier choice for Quad CrossFire systems. The accessory package also includes an HDMI cable, PowerDVD and a 3DMark license, not bad for a $40 premium.
Even though the GeForce 8800 GT has already been out for a while, it still has the punch to play all the latest games. The VVIKOO 8800 GT Max 1 GB comes with the Zalman VF1000 pre-installed and also features double the video memory. But is there any performance to be gained by going from 512 MB to 1024 MB of memory?
AMD's new HD 3650 is basically an improved version of the 2600 XT without any major technological advances other than a smaller die size resulting in cheaper cards. PowerColor's HD 3650 Extreme comes equipped with 512 MB of fast GDDR3 memory and runs at higher clocks than the AMD reference design.
